India Jan HSBC manufacturing PMI at 52.9

Despite falling from December’s two-year record of 54.5 to 52.9, the headline HSBC India Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMITM) – 
a seasonally adjusted indicator designed to give an accurate overview of manufacturing operating conditions– 
remained consistent with a solid improvement in business conditions in January. Moreover, the latest expansion was the fifteenth in as many months. 

Sector data highlighted consumer goods as the best performing of the three market groups for the third month in a row. 

The overall improvement in the Indian manufacturing sector was underlined by further output growth in January. 

Production rose at a robust pace, extending the current sequence of expansion to 15 months. 

Survey responses generally attributed higher output to stronger order books. 

Growth of output and new business continued to have little impact on employment in January, as workforce numbers rose only marginally during the month. 

Concurrently, backlogs of work rose at the fastest rate in a year, with some companies commenting on capacity pressures being applied by rising order book volumes. 

Bharat Forge Q3 PAT at Rs.196 crore

Total Income has increased from Rs. 8574.70 mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 to Rs. 12168.80 mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.














Bharat Forge Ltd has announced a net profit of Rs. 1963.40 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 as compared to Rs. 939.70 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2013.

Total Income has increased from Rs. 8574.70 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 to Rs. 12168.80 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.

Sensex slips in opening trade, down 150pts; Nifty breaks 8800

Rupee slips, Bank Nifty sheds 200pts; Realty, pharma trade firm

The benchmark indices opened on a negative note registering cuts of up to 0.5%. The Nifty is currently trading 20 points lower at 8788; while the S&P BSE Sensex is holds its crucial 29,000 levels trading 120 points lower. 

The midcap and small cap index are outperforming the larger peers with up to half a percent gains.

The Indian rupee is trading 9 paise lower at Rs 61.98 against the dollar; after a strong opening.
    
The market breadth is healthy with 792 shares advancing, 535 shares declining and 343 shares remaining unchanged on the NSE.

On the sectoral front the consumer durables and IT index emerged as the top gainers advancing over a percent each. Realty and pharma shares trim gains after a strong opening in the opening session.  FMCG shares are witnessing profit taking with cuts of up to half a percent. Bank Nifty is trading 1% lower.
 
List of top gainers include HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, BPCL, Sun Pharma, Hindalco and PNB with over 1.5% gains. Shares of Wipro, Axis Bank, Cipla and DLF joined them advancing over one percent..

On the declining list Asian Paints, Coal India, Bajaj Auto, Dr. Reddy, HDFC Bank ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and Bank of Baroda booked the top slots losing over 1.5% each. Joining them are shares of HUL, Power Grid, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Grasim with over a percent in declines.

Top corporate news of the day - February 02, 2015

Sebi has revised expenditure it intends to recover from the Sahara group to Rs259mn in the current fiscal towards money spent on identifying the investors and making refunds.

Infrastructure major Hindustan Construction Company has deferred plans to list its subsidiary Lavasa Corporation for raising Rs7.50bn through initial public offer to next fiscal, a top company official said. 

State-run NMDC has reduced iron ore prices by Rs 200-300 per tonne for the current month as weak global prices, which nosedived to five-and-a-half-year lows, are putting pressure on domestic rates. 

Biocon plans to spend 10% of its annual biopharma revenue on research and development in the next fiscal year.

IFCI is likely to sell its 2.5% stake in stock exchange NSE which may fetch the financial institution about Rs5bn.

Irked by the government's 10% stake sale in Coal India Ltd (CIL), trade unions have warned of a 'non-cooperation drive' to protest against the disinvestment and other issues. 

Indian Overseas Bank has launched an issue of Unsecured, Non-Convertible, Additional Tier -I, Basel III Compliant Perpetual bonds to the extent of Rs10bn.

The first forex hub of the Mumbai- headquartered Central Bank of India in Gujarat was opened at Urmi Char rasta here to provide prompt and efficient services to importers and exporters.


Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd will invest Rs9bn to set up a 40,000 metric tonne per annum (MTPA) plant for manufacturing melamine, which used for making plastics, fertiliser and crockery products, at Vadodara.

Sanofi-Synthelabo India, a part of pharma major Sanofi group, will invest Rs900mn in Apollo Sugar Clinics Ltd through a combination of primary and secondary funding.

Strides Arcolab Ltd has announced that the company's oral dosage facility at KRS Gardens in Bangalore has been found acceptable by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). 

The inspection was carried out in August 2014.  

Two-wheeler maker Royal Enfield of Eicher Motors reported 43% jump in total sales in January this year at 28,927 units against 20,232 units in the year-ago period.

Divis Laboratories Ltd is considering setting up a new manufacturing facility near Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh with an investment of Rs5bn.

Steelmaker Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), Visakhapatnam said it in talks with PSU major NMDC for marketing steel products through its strong marketing network.

Adani Group, JSW Steel and two other companies are in the race for a Rs3.50bn dredging project at Goa port, the first such scheme on PPP mode at a major port.

ET Edge hosts the ‘ET Edge Manufacturing Summit 2015.

With the theme, ‘Gearing up for the next level’, the conference aimed to analyse the current trends, share industry experiences and bring forth insightful debates that would impact the industry.


Times Conferences Ltd. functional under the brand name ET Edge, an Economic Times Initiative, founded to empower multiple industries and segments through the dispersion of critical business knowledge through strategically developed conferences and summits, today held the ‘ET Edge Manufacturing Summit 2015’’  in New Delhi.

With the theme, ‘Gearing up for the next level’, the conference aimed to analyse the current trends, share industry experiences and bring forth insightful debates that would impact the industry.   

Speaking on the occasion, Rishi Kapoor, Sector Head, Times Conferences Limited – BCCL, said, “The manufacturing industry in India has an established a record of continuously improving productivity.

Industrial automation and the Internet have been the mainly been the cause of rise in productivity in the industry.

We aim to address the issues faced by the industry and chalk out a way forward strategy through the summit.”   

The Keynote address was given by Amarendra Sinha, Special Secretary & Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, Government of India and the opening remarks was given by Rishi Kapoor, Sector Head, Times Conferences Limited – BCCL.

The summit focused on discussions on topics like A Collaborative initiative – A road map to boost manufacturing, Game Changers: Smart Interconnected Technologies and Improving Operational Excellence in Manufacturing.

These sessions were attended by various eminent thought leaders of the sector such as J K Dadoo, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India; Pratyush Kumar, President, Boeing India; Amit Uplenchwar, President, Adani Ports & SEZ; Venkatesh Valluri, Chairman, Ingersoll Rand India;  Atul Bhatnagar, COO, National Skill Development Corporation; Nal Gollagunta, Managing Director, Commercial Sales Cisco India & SAARCand many more.

Govt overshoots full-year fiscal deficit target in December.

The government overshot the full-year fiscal deficit target in December itself but this could be offset by a pickup in tax revenue, money from disinvestment and spectrum auctions, surplus transfers by RBI, substantial savings due to tardy plan spending as also those in nonplan spending due to the fall in crude oil prices, a report stated.

According to reports, ahead of the  budget, sections of the government favour creating spending space to boost growth within the current framework.

Under the current timeline, the government has to shrink the fiscal deficit to 4.1% of GDP this year, 3.6% in the next year.

Top economic news of the day - February 02, 2015

The Centre said it will pump ~USD16bn for building four new steel plants of 20—24 million tonnes combined capacity in collaboration with the governments in four states.


Jet fuel prices have been cut by 11.3% bringing further relief to domestic airlines.

Increase in construction activity in the US is expected to drive the demand for construction chemicals in near future. 

According to the Freedonia Group’s new report, the demand for construction chemicals used in on-site applications is projected to grow 8.2% per year through 2018 to USD12.1bn in the US. 

The Centre said it will pump ~USD16bn for building four new steel plants of 20—24 million tonnes combined capacity in collaboration with the governments in four states.

To fast-track industrial activities, the government has granted environmental clearance to 190 projects worth an estimated ~USD101bn across sectors like mining and steel during the June-December 2014.

Monsanto India stock zooms 7% on Q3 results

Shares of Monsanto India Ltd rallies 7% at Rs3375 after the company has posted a net profit of Rs. 483.40 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 as compared to Rs. 651.10 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2013.

The stock has hit a high of Rs3385 and a low of Rs3191.

Total Income has decreased from Rs. 1878.00 mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 to Rs. 1388.10 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2014.

HCL Tech stock hits 5% upper circuit

HCL Technologies has rallied another 5 per cent to a fresh life-time high at Rs. 1,889 on the back of strong Q3 performance and a liberal bonus issue.

The company had announced 1:1 bonus issue on Friday, while reporting a strong 27.3 per cent growth in Q2 consolidated net profit at $ 307.5 million, under the US GAAP, when compared with $ 241.60 million in the corresponding Q2 quarter. Total income jumped by 12.8 per cent to $ 1,490.70 million from $ 1,321.30 million.

The stock continues to trade near the day's high, up 5 per cent at Rs. 1,882, and has now galloped 14.5 per cent in the last two trading sessions. The counter has seen trades of around 80,000 shares on the BSE.

Meanwhile, the Sensex has jumped over 79 points to 29,104.

Maruti Suzuki grew 13.9% YoY in January 2015 sales

Maruti Suzuki, India's largest passenger vehicle company, reported its numbers for January sales, which grew by 13.9% at 1.16 lakh units as against 1.02 lakh units (YoY). Domestic sales grew by 9.3% YoY, as it clocked 1.05 lakh vehicle in sales as against 96,569 units.

The total exports grew by a phenomenal 88.9%, with sales of 11,047 units as against 5,847 units.

The passenger vehicles segment grew by 7.9% YoY, from 82,461 in Jan'14 to 89,014 in Jan'15. The utility vehicles grew by 35%, while the vans segment grew by 9.3%.

Recently the company also declared its Q3 results. It sold a total of 323,911 vehicles in Q3, a growth of 12.4 per cent. Of this, exports were at 28,709 units, a growth of 43.8 per cent. The company registered Net Sales (net of excise) of Rs. 122,631 million, a growth of 15.5 per cent over the same period in the previous year. 

Net profit in Q3 (2014-15) stood at Rs 8,022 million, up 17.8 per cent compared to the same period last year. Higher volumes, material cost reduction initiatives and favorable foreign exchange contributed to bottom-line during the quarter. 

Reliance stock flat

Reliance stock is down 0.21% after the company counter witnessed a huge block deal on the BSE.

Around 5.5 lakh shares were traded in a single block at Rs. 915 this morning on the BSE. 

The stock has hit a high of Rs. 919.35 and a low of Rs. 913.05. 

Total traded quantity on the counter stood at over 6.02 lk shares.

Nifty below 8,800 levels

At 9:16AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 29,090 down 92 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 8,790 down 18 points. 

The BSE Mid-cap Index and BSE Small-cap Index was trading flat. 

Auto, Consumer Durables, Power, healthcare, realty, banking, capital goods, Oil and gas indices are the gainers, while Metal, Bankex, FMCG indices are losers. 

GMR Infra, Ranbaxy, Adani, Tech Mahindra, HDIL, Sun Pharma are among the gainers, whereas DRREDDY, Coal India, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda are losing sheen on BSE. 

The RBI governor is expected to leave rates unchanged after a surprise cut a couple of weeks ago.

Stock specific action will continue on companies especially those announcing their results. 

Oil price movement and currency movements are also at play. 

Auto companies will react to their sales numbers. 

Adani group will also be in focus following the restructuring developments. 

FIIs bought shares worth Rs 12,919 crore (USD 2.1 billion) in January, while they bought debt worth Rs 20,769 crore (USD 3.34 billion), taking the total investment to Rs 33,688 crore (USD 5.45 billion),  says a report. 


This is the highest investment since July when overseas investors had poured in Rs 36,046 crore, the report adds. 

The government overshot the full-year fiscal deficit target in December itself but this could be offset by a pickup in tax revenue, money from disinvestment and spectrum auctions, surplus transfers by RBI, substantial savings due to tardy plan spending as also those in nonplan spending due to the fall in crude oil prices, a report stated. 

Hindustan Construction Company has deferred plans to list its subsidiary Lavasa Corporation for raising Rs 750 crore through initial public offer to next fiscal, a top company official said. 

It has also shelved plans to raise another Rs 750 crore through an issue of equity shares to qualified institutional investors to next fiscal. The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation has released the new series of national accounts, revising the base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12. 

The base year of national accounts was last revised in January 2010. Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices stands at Rs.92.8 lakh crore and Rs.99.2 lakh crore, respectively for the years 2012-13 and 2013-14, showing growth of 5.1 percent during 2012-13, and 6.9 percent during 2013-14.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced Mumbai Next: MMR Transformation – the government’s initiative to transform the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) into a Global, Financial, Commercial & Entertainment Hub in partnership with Mumbai First, a body that promotes and supports policy for the betterment of Mumbai.